Pakistan has made four changes going into the third and final Test against Australia at Hobart. Shoaib Malik, Khurram Manzoor, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Mohammad Aamer will replace Misbahul Haq, Faisal Iqbal, Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Sami. The announcement by the Pakistan Cricket Board and the inclusion of Sarfaraz has finally put an end to days of speculation and controversy regarding the selection of embattled wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal. Malik and Manzoor will be playing their first games of the tour while the return of Aamer will give Pakistan a full-strength bowling lineup. The squad: Imran Farhat, Salman Butt, Khurram Manzoor, Mohammad Yousuf (captain), Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammad Aamer, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Asif. Faisal Iqbal (12th man). Pakistan's batting problems are also troubling the team. It crumbled under the pressure of a small chase in Sydney last week. The problem, according to Mohammad Yousuf, is more about not going on to get big scores when set, rather than being out of form or poorly-equipped to handle Australian conditions. Yousuf himself has had starts in most innings on this tour and looked in good touch, but has only one fifty to show for it. That is one of five fifties Pakistan's batsmen have scored over two Tests, and nobody has yet scored a hundred. Through the tour, Yousuf has blamed Pakistan's veer towards Twenty20 cricket as the root cause of failure: it have crossed 350 just twice in its last 16 innings and hasn't batted 100 overs even once on this tour. He said Pakistan's batsmen lacked the patience for the longer format. “Our middle order is scoring fifties but nothing bigger and this will happen,” Yousuf said. “These guys are all young and if you look at their averages they are also low. All of us are in good form, but we need to score 350-odd then our bowling is good enough to get them.” According to Australian skipper Ricky Ponting Pakistan is picking strokeplayers and dashers. There are other guys in Pakistan who can play Test cricket. Shoaib Malik is a great example, he's someone who can bat long periods of time but there he is sitting on the sidelines. Pakistan will be keen to prevent a 12th successive loss and a fourth successive whitewash against Australia. The only change for Australia is the return of Simon Katich, who missed the Sydney Test with an elbow problem. Phillip Hughes has been released from the squad. SA hopes to save face South Africa's reputation as one of the leading Test nations will be at stake when it tries to stop England from clinching a series win in the fourth and final Test starting at the Wanderers Stadium Thursday. After away series wins against both Australia and England in 2008, South Africa briefly topped the International Cricket Council's Test rankings. But it suffered a home series defeat against Australia last year and trail the current series 1-0 to face the prospect of another failure on home soil. England won the second Test in Durban by an innings and 98 runs, although in both the first and third Tests the tourists had narrow escapes, hanging on with nine wickets down in the final innings. South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis said it had been frustrating because his side felt they were the better team – ‘although the England players might disagree' – but said South Africa had only themselves to blame for being in a must-win situation. “They haven't given up,” Kallis said of England. Kallis said the conditions at the Wanderers could favour South Africa although he said the pitch might not be as lively as some pundits expected.
